Coverage of the Portland Sea Dogs and Red Sox Organization

Final Day in Curve, PA

This year the Curve have developed a new slogan, it’s called Curve, PA…I was talking about this on the broadcast last week about this lovely state. A majority of people who live in Pennsylvania refer to each city as Altoona, PA…that’s how they say it…We don’t say Portland, M-E. So the slogan makes sense if you’re from here.

Today, the Sea Dogs try to avoid a three-game sweep to the best team in Minor League Baseball. Tomorrow night, the ‘Dogs go from worst to first, taking on the New Britain Rock Cats at New Britain Stadium.

Note from today:

A BIG FIRST DID IT: The Altoona Curve scored four runs in the first
inning, and grabbed their second straight win in the series, 8-1 win over the
Sea Dogs on Wednesday night at Blair County Ballpark…Portland’s lone run came
two batters into the game when Nate
Spears scored on an error by CF Gorkys
Hernandez on a Che-Hsuan Lin single…Miles Durham and Hector Gimenez each homered in the win…Bryan Morris (4-2) tossed six and 2/3 innings on five hits and one
run to notch the win.

TOUGH NIGHT FOR THE RIGHTY:Jeremy Kehrtsuffered his second straight loss,
allowing a season high in hits (9) and runs (8)…Kehrt surrendered five
consecutive hits in the first inning to plate three runs…After retiring eight
straight batters, Alex Presley walkedand Durham smacked a two-run homer.

ROSTER MOVE: Yesterday, Juan
Apodaca was promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket, but did not play in the last
night’s game with the PawSox…Catcher Josue
Peley takes the roster spot of Apodaca and will be wearing #32 in today’s
game…Peley was acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Jonathan Van Every and was playing in
Lowell, going 1-for-5, BB in 2 games…He started the season in Low-A West
Virginia, hitting .179 (12-for-67) with 6 RBI in 19 games.

SOLID RELIEF: RHP Santo Luisretired all five batters faced and RHP Jason
Rice hurled a clean eighth inning in relief of Kehrt on Wednesday…Luis has
allowed just one run over his last 21 IP (0.43 ERA), and leads all Portland
relievers with a 2.80 ERA…Rice is the team leader in appearances with 25 and
has not yielded a run in eight of nine outings.

50/50
CLUB:C Luis Exposito leads the team with 51
RBI, which is third in the league behind Reading’s Tagg Bozied…INF Nate Spears has
drawn an E.L. best 51 walks, and is ranked fourth in the league with a .399
on-base percentage…Exposito blasted his fifth homer in the series opener.

FIFE FIGHTING FOR FIVE: Today’s
starter RHP Stephen Fife is 4-0,
3.83 ERA (24 ER/56.1 IP) in his last 10 appearances, and worked a season-high
seven innings five days ago against the Akron Aeros…Fife’s lone loss was on
April 18 against the Trenton Thunder at Hadlock Field.

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